Readers
Patrick T. Connolly and Eric A. Connolly were kind enough to
allow me to use this amazing photo. They have colourized a
photo taken by their father, Sgt. Thomas W. Connolly, during his
training in Canada. We don't have an exact date or location for
the photo, but we can make some educated guesses knowing Sgt.
Connolly's history, and the history of the 2 aircraft shown.
Sgt. Connolly was under training at Fort William, Ontario from November 1940 to February 1941, then at Dafoe, Saskatchewan until July 1941, and finally at Rivers, Manitoba where he recieved his navigator wings on 4 August 1941. He then departed for England in the fall of 1941. The aircraft arrived at Fort William in August 1941, and were uncrated, assembled, and flown to No. 35 SFTS at North Battleford shortly after their arrival. This photo was probably taken at Rivers, or possibly another BCATP base in Western Canada, as the aircraft were en route to North Battleford. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the "last three" of the serial hand written, apparently in chalk, on the elevator, aileron and rudder of AS278. This was commonly done to speed up the re-assembly process when the aircraft were uncrated after their sea voyage to Canada. The chalk wouldn't have lasted long in normal usage, so that helps us narrow down the date.
Sgt. Connolly was under training at Fort William, Ontario from November 1940 to February 1941, then at Dafoe, Saskatchewan until July 1941, and finally at Rivers, Manitoba where he recieved his navigator wings on 4 August 1941. He then departed for England in the fall of 1941. The aircraft arrived at Fort William in August 1941, and were uncrated, assembled, and flown to No. 35 SFTS at North Battleford shortly after their arrival. This photo was probably taken at Rivers, or possibly another BCATP base in Western Canada, as the aircraft were en route to North Battleford. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the "last three" of the serial hand written, apparently in chalk, on the elevator, aileron and rudder of AS278. This was commonly done to speed up the re-assembly process when the aircraft were uncrated after their sea voyage to Canada. The chalk wouldn't have lasted long in normal usage, so that helps us narrow down the date.
This
data has come from a variety of sources, and may contain all sorts of
errors.
In the future, I will add a complete list of references. For now, some
recent
Internet references can be found at the links below. I would
welcome any
corrections or additions you may have. Contact me using the link below.
© 2015 by R. W.
R. Walker All rights reserved
under the copyright laws.
This
is an amateur site - please don't rely on any of this data for anything
important!
Created 11 February 2015. Updated 11 February
2015.